two questions

Two Questions3:1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;3but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:1-5 NKJV)

We would like to linger between Genesis 2:25 and 3:1, but this era of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is not chronicled. We quickly leap to the first temptation. The most remarkable fact here is that there even was a temptation since Adam and Eve had everything they needed for happy and prosperous lives.

Of course, if there were no obstacles, no difficulties, no challenges, no opportunity to choose a course other than what God intended, then His created beings would not be free. They would have no choice to be other than what God wanted.

Indeed, this was Satan's charge concerning Job. When God held up Job as an example to Satan:9 So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (Job 1:9-11)The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was necessary. God's hedge around His creation would have made Eden little more than a theme park scripted and controlled by God if there had been no temptation.

And this brings us to the serpent - Strong's H5175 naw-khash', "From H5172; a snake (from its hiss): - serpent." That the root word H5172 is defined as, "A primitive root; properly to hiss, that is, whisper a (magic) spell; generally to prognosticate:....enchanter" gives us greater understanding of this cunning being.

Someone pointed out that the serpent is not identified as the devil, Satan, and that such a being as Satan is not mentioned until 1 Chronicles 21:1, when Satan provoked David to number Israel. If references to Satan in the Prophets, and Jesus' description of Satan as "a murderer from the beginning," are not enough, then Rev. 20:2 surely confirms the identification, He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." "Old" here could be translated as "original" or "primeval."

The motive of the serpent, that old devil, would simply be that the snake is pure evil, no motive required, if we did not understand the serpent's history.Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 speak of Satan's/Lucifer's own rebellion. Satan also had the freedom to choose. Given the freedom to choose something other than God's created order, Satan chose the chaos of rebellion. He spreads the rebellion to bolster his case against God."For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (1 Sam 15:23) brings us back to the Hebrew understanding of the serpent (above), who "whispers a (magic) spell." And, indeed, Eve was captured by the serpent's spell.

The serpent implied that God had forbidden Adam and Eve to partake of anything in the garden, a severe prohibition. Eve corrected the charge, stating that only one tree was forbidden. Note that she made the prohibition more restrictive by adding, "nor shall you touch it."The focus was now fixed on the one forbidden item, to the exclusion of the full freedom allowed beyond this small restriction. Satan then undermined Eve's superior knowledge concerning the restriction by attributing a bad motive to God and stating that the penalty is not true.

The serpent implied that God is holding back something from Adam and Eve, that He is looking out for Himself and is not trustworthy.Eve must decide. She could have defended God, but.... Satan has presented his own motive to Eve, "You will be like God...." This is the ultimate question: Do you want to set the rules, or are you content with being the created and being subject to your Creator?Legitimate questions for Eve at this point, and for each of us today, are:

Do I know what God has said?

Do I trust Him?

Eve knew what He had said, but her answer to the second question was , "No."

These two questions are also our questions. They require simple "Yes" or "No" answers, and the questions are with us at every moment.In our life outside of Eden, with a far greater number of questions that do not lend themselves easily to a "Yes" or "No" answer, we must come back to how we answer these basic questions.

A "Yes" answer acknowledges the order at Creation - the Kingdom of Heaven is within. A "No" answer leads to chaos - the Garden cannot have 2 masters.We are free to choose our response.​ Next article